Mileage Reviews

Bike and Car Mileage Reviews

Maruti Suzuki launched the Swift in India back in 2005. Since then, the car has undergone more than a couple of changes with respect to the engine to comply with the reintroduced emission norms. The latest versions of the LXi, VXi and ZXi petrol cars come equipped with a K-series petrol engine with VVT. This has a 1197cc displacement and with 4 cylinders can generate a maximum power of 87PS at 6000RPM and torque of 114Nm at 4000 RPM. This is extremely similar to the engine specs that we discussed for the Maruti Ritz not so long back.

Talking of other important specs, the Swift measures 3.85m x 1.695m x 1.530m, has a wheelbase of 2.43m and a ground clearance of 170mm. The car weighs 960kg (LXi) and has a fuel tank that can take in 42 liters at its brim. The Suzuki Swift LXi is the cheapest variant available and is available at an ex-showroom price of Rs. 4.49 lakhs at Delhi.

Manufacturer Claim on Mileage

The Swift has a lot of things in common with the Ritz. Both cars have a 1197cc engine that delivers close to 87PS power. The physical dimensions are more or less the same on both cars. However, the Ritz weighs slightly more than the Swift. While the kerb weight of the Ritz is around 1030kg, Swift roughly weighs 50-60 kg lower. This has an implication on the overall mileage claimed by the manufacturer since a higher weight requires the engine to spend more fuel in moving the car and consequently lowers the efficiency.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. According to Gaadi, the manufacturer claims a mileage of 18.6 kmpl on the Swift LXi which is almost the same as what is claimed on the Ritz. So it’s either the better engine on the Ritz or that Maruti doesn’t really want to cannibalize the sales of one of its cars due to the other.

Test Drive & Customer Reviews

MaxAbout does not offer great independent insights this time. They note that the latest version of the car has bigger and better headlamps, automatic climate control and a steering wheel with music controls. However, their report on mileage doesn’t seem to be independently assessed. According to them, the Swift should deliver around 12 kmpl on city roads and 18 kmpl on highways.

The report on ProKerala seems to be similar with vague information on how the reported mileages were tested. They note the Swift to offer 11 kmpl on city roads that goes up to 16 kmpl on the highways.

There are a few reviews of the Suzuki Swift on AutoJunction, and according to these, the expected city mileage on the car is around 10.55-14 kmpl while on highways, it can go as high as 19.78 kmpl. This is apparently the economy a user observed on his Bangalore-Chennai trip.

IndianAuto.com does a great job in comparing the specifications and features on the petrol and diesel variants of the Swift. On their comparison page, the reviewers note that the diesel variant consistently gives around 2-3 kmpl more than the petrol variant. Accordingly, they expect the LXi petrol variant to offer close to 11.5 kmpl on city roads and 15.8 kmpl on highways with the overall figure hovering about 12.6 kmpl.

CarBHP does not have a great deal of review going on their site. Hence I am unsure if the mileage they claim on the Swift is from independent tests or sourced from elsewhere. Anyway, they say the overall economy on the Swift LXi could be around 12.3 kmpl.

One thing that has been coming up persistently on the MouthShut forum is a “brake failure” issue that a lot of users have been facing at low gears. Customers say that the brake becomes extremely difficult to apply or doesn’t work at first or second gears sometimes causing minor accidents. Maruti Suzuki apparently is in the know and so it’s likely that this issue may not occur on your newly purchased Swift. In any case, do remember to test it out before accepting the delivery. On the fuel consumption front though, the car has received a 4/5 rating. There are not too many reviews in the past year talking about fuel. However the one that did talks highly of it claiming 16.5-17 kmpl on city roads and 21 kmpl on the highways. Seems kind of unlikely though.

Here is a summary of the results noted from various sources. What is your view on the Suzuki Swift Petrol? Would you be going for it? Tell us your thoughts, comments and questions in the section below.